Carlsberg- Probably not the best beer in the world

In what appeared to be the most counterproductive marketing move of 2019, Carlsberg ran a new marketing campaign playing on their old campaign ‘probably the best beer in the world’. For years, Carlsberg has based their marketing campaigns off of the quality of their beers with campaigns such as ‘if Carlsberg did kickabouts’ and ‘that calls for a Carlsberg’ so when advertising agency Fold7 showed their new campaign ‘probably not the best beer in the world’ there was understandable nerves within the brand and agency.

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The campaign was a declaration that the brand had lost its way having admitted to chasing volume rather than quality. The brand has recently embarked on a ‘head to hop’ revitalisation of the brand to rebuild them back to the position of a premium Danish pilsner

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The risk paid off. The campaign was declared the top campaign of 2019 by Marketing Week while also doubling the awareness of the company’s marketing.